Newsroom

In our earlier blog Updates To The Snapper Display Messages our reply to some of your comments garnered quite a bit of interest, so now the response (with typos fixed) is here as a blog of its own.

Where did the time go?  It’s a good question!  There are very good reasons why we decided to stop using the bus readers as a clock.  Firstly, when we were designing the new interface, we spoke to lots of people about their experiences with Snapper on the bus, their understanding of how it worked and what they really wanted in terms of useful information.  If you happened to be walking down Cuba St on a couple of sunny Wellington afternoons last summer, you may have seen us giving away chocolate fish in exchange for some honest feedback.  

We worked with Optimal Usability and mocked up a few options of what we thought we could do with the bus readers, using a great little Flash demo tool built by Wellington’s own ChromeToaster, and we ran sweet-toothed participants through a series of potential scenarios.  One overwhelming result was that a lot of people either hadn’t realised that the default screen was actually displaying the time, or of those who had made the connection they expressed that they found it difficult to read.

Secondly, we made a major step in de-cluttering the Snapper on-bus experience when we removed the “please don’t forget to tag off message”.  This was a huge relief for everyone, but left us with the dilemma of how to remind regular commuters to tag off and how to help new Snapper users to know what to do.  We came up with two solutions, both of which have been implemented.

First of all, as those of you who used our bus readers to keep an eye on the time will know, we replaced the “0″ and the the six-digit 24 hour clock with a simple “Tag On”, “Tag Off” message.  Whenever the reader is idle it acts as a useful reminder to regular commuters and new users alike.

We also now have a system that can detect whether a Snapper has been used before.  If it’s a brand new Snapper, then for the first five times it’s used, a “please remember to tag off” message will be played.  Once the Snapper has been used five times, it’s back to simple beeps.  If you do forget to tag off however, then next time you board, you will hear the “please remember to tag off” message once again, both as a notification and as a reminder.  (Note: this feature will be implemented around the end of August)

We’re really pleased with the overall combination of the changes we’ve made to the voices and the display, and while it may take some getting used to for those who have been Snapper users for some time, we think that this it’s now far more intuitive for first-time and infrequent users of Snapper.

Sean Higham

Head of Product & Design